This week marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which first landed American astronauts on the moon’s surface. Of the intrepid crew, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin have tended to dominate public attention, but it was pilot Michael Collins who flew the command module to the moon — and faced his own distinct […]

The Trump administration wants NASA to get back to the moon by 2024, using any means necessary. But will the money and the commitment be there to support the effort? PBS NewsHour science correspondent Miles O’Brien talks to NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine about technical and political risk, international competition and his broader vision for the […]

More than two years after it launched, a spacecraft called OSIRIS-REx is approaching its target, an asteroid named Bennu. Scientists hope that rock samples from Bennu will provide insight into the likelihood of life on other planets, as well as the risk the asteroid poses to earth. PBS NewsHour science correspondent Miles O’Brien explains the […]

A huge announcement this week from the European Space Agency: they have found liquid water on Mars. Originally aired on the PBS NewsHour. Previous detections of water on the Red Planet were have all been frozen–though both imaging and on the ground sampling have also shown that liquid water was present on Mars’ surface in […]